News

The Showdown Effect Beta Begins

After how much dang fun I had with Magicka, I'm willing to go with Arrowhead Game Studios wherever they want to take me. If that place is a 2.5D competitive platformer/brawler with time-traveling walking clichés, so be it. I've already gone ahead and pre-purchased The Showdown Effect, so I'm in on the beta that starts today. I hope to murder see you all in there!

After reading Dan's experience with some hands-on time, I'm even more stoked to check it out. Falling through ceilings, beating people with pool cues, and endless action-star one-liners? Yes, please. Plus, Arrowhead's focus on making a game that takes full advantage of the PC's unique attributes (no console version is planned, despite this being a platformer) makes me stand up and pay attention. I'll extend another hearty "Yes, please" to quick balance patches, cheap DLC, and mod support. (Yes, Magicka's release was a little rocky... but it got better!)

As a side note to the over-the-top action in Showdown Effect, I'd like to point out one really cool thing that Arrowhead is doing: The ability to stream to Twitch.tv is built right in. As of late, streaming competitive games has become a viable solution to the problem of not being able to get on TV or other more traditional forms of media, and making it easy to do so is a really forward-thinking move. Bravo.